Baseball Hall of Fame inducts first members - Jan 29, 1936 - HISTORY.com Baseball Hall of Fame inducts first members Share this: Baseball Hall of Fame inducts first members Author Baseball Hall of Fame inducts first members URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1936, in Cooperstown, New York, the Baseball Hall of Fame announces the election of five charter members: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. The idea of a Baseball Hall of Fame began gathering steam in 1935, when members of the Clark Foundation in Cooperstown sought to revive business and tourism after the Depression. Claiming that the Army officer Abner Doubleday, a Cooperstown native, had invented baseball in 1839, they lobbied for a new museum dedicated to baseball to be built in Cooperstown. Though the Doubleday story was later discredited, the museum plans went ahead anyway. The five charter Hall of Fame members were elected by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA).

The ballots revealed that five players had received at least 75 percent of the votes cast, setting a standard for admission to the Hall of Fame that still exists today. Cobb, an astoundingly productive hitter who won nine consecutive American League batting titles from 1907 to 1915, received the most votes, appearing on 222 of the 226 ballots cast. Tying for second with 215 votes were Ruth, an ace left-handed pitcher who had smashed the league’s home run records, and Wagner, a star shortstop who won eight National League batting titles and retired with more than 3,000 hits. Mathewson, who pitched more winning games than any NL pitcher in history, received 205 votes, while Johnson, one of the game’s most powerful pitchers and career record holder for most strikeouts at the time of his retirement, received 189. Four of the “First Five” were on hand for the official induction ceremony, which took place on June 12, 1939, in Cooperstown.

Cobb, Johnson, Ruth and Wagner watched as they took their place in history, along with 21 others who were elected between 1937 and 1939. The only one missing was Mathewson, who had died in October 1925. Today, selections to the Baseball Hall of Fame are still made by the BBWAA, along with the Baseball Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans, established in 1953. Related Videos 1936 - 1939 | Baseball Hall of Fame Baseball Hall of Fame 1936 1937 1938 1939 More Inductions The inaugural Hall of Fame election results were announced in the media on Feb. 2, 1936, and featured Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner as the Class of 1936.

After 20 more members were added to the Hall of Fame in the elections in 1937, 1938 and 1939, the first Induction Ceremony was held on June 12, 1939 – with all 11 living electees present in Cooperstown. Lou Gehrig is recognized as a member of the Class of 1939, but Gehrig was not elected until late in the year after it became clear that his playing career was over due to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The baseball world dedicates the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, June 12, 1939 - BL-2535-89 (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library) Share this image: Today in Media History: Reporting on the first Baseball Hall of Fame inductees in 1936 – Poynter By David Shedden • January 29, 2015 On January 29, 1936, the first players were elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame . The inductees included Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson.

The Corsicana (Texas) Daily Sun published the following photo illustration and story a few weeks later. Corsicana (Texas) Daily Sun, February 10, 1936 "Players and sportswriters voting in the poll to select players meriting places in baseball's hall of fame at Cooperstown, N.Y., could agree on only five men -- although scheduled to pick ten -- to represent the period from 1900 to the present day. Top choice was Ty Cobb (foreground), the 'Georgia Peach,' who set a staggering assortment of records in his stormy playing career with the Detroit Tigers. He received 222 votes, only four short of unanimous. The others chosen, left to right, were Babe Ruth and Hans Wagner , who polled 215 votes each; Christy Mathewson , next with 206, and Walter Johnson , fireball king, who qualified with 189.

In the background is the memorial hall in Cooperstown where baseball's centennial will be celebrated in 1939." Here are some links to newsreel or other film footage about the first Baseball Hall of Fame inductees: On This Day: Baseball Hall of Fame Elects First Five more » Associated Press Ten Baseball Hall of Famers pose outside the museum in Cooperstown, June 12, 1939. Front row; Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, Cy Young. Back row: Honus Wagner, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tris Speaker, Napoleon Lajoie, George Sisler and Walter Johnson. On This Day: Baseball Hall of Fame Elects First Five January 29, 2011 06:00 AM by findingDulcinea Staff On Jan. 29, 1936, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson were named the inaugural class of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cobb, Ruth, Wagner, Mathewson and Johnson Elected to Cooperstown The roots of the Baseball Hall of Fame dates back to 1934, when Stephen C.

Clark, a resident of Cooperstown, N.Y.—where Abner Doubleday purportedly invented baseball in 1839—purchased a baseball used by Doubleday and displayed it in Cooperstown’s Village Club . The display was popular and soon, with the support of baseball’s presidents and commissioner, Clark began receiving memorabilia from across the country. National League President Ford Frick suggested that a Hall of Fame be created in Cooperstown to celebrated baseball’s centennial in 1939. He asked the Baseball Writers' Association of America to vote for the five greatest players in baseball history as the inaugural Hall of Fame class , though the Hall of Fame itself wasn’t scheduled to open for another three years. Ty Cobb, who retired with the most hits and best batting average in baseball history, received the most votes, appearing on 222 of the 226 ballots. He was followed by slugger Babe Ruth and shortstop Honus Wagner with 95 percent of the vote, and pitchers Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson with 90 percent and 84 percent, respectively. The Hall of Fame decided that 75 percent of the vote be the standard for induction.

Three more classes, featuring 20 players, managers and “pioneers,” would join the “First Five” before the opening of the Hall of Fame in 1939. All 11 surviving members, including Cobb, Ruth, Wagner and Johnson, attended the celebration. “The ‘First Five’ hold a special place in Baseball history,” wrote Dan Holmes for the Hall of Fame. “In the Hall of Fame, the plaques of those five men stand separate facing visitors as they immediately enter the gallery. … In many ways, these five players serve as a standard bearer for future inductees.” MLB.com: Nats celebrate ‘Walter Johnson Day’ Ty Cobb “Many great players have surfaced on the diamond, but none out-hit, outplayed, or out-hustled the man they called ‘The Georgia Peach,’ ” writes the Official Web Site of Ty Cobb. In 24 seasons, Cobb had 4,189 hits—second only to Pete Rose—and a .367 batting average, which MLB recognizes as he highest career average of all-time. Despite his on-field accomplishments, Cobb is better remembered for his violent and hateful off-field behavior .

“The Georgia Peach was a southern Protestant who hated northerners, Catholics, blacks and apparently anybody else who was different from him,” writes ESPN’s Larry Schwartz. “And, in turn, opponents (and some teammates) despised him.” Babe Ruth George Herman “Babe” Ruth excelled as both a pitcher and hitter with the Boston Red Sox, pitching a then-record 29 consecutive scoreless innings in World Series games. Before the 1920 season, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees to fund his Broadway plays, a move that would haunt the Red Sox for decades to come. Ruth’s prodigious slugging revolutionized the way baseball was played and in the wake of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, his larger-than-life fame may have saved the game. Ruth, according to biographer Robert Creamer, was “a unique figure in the social history of the United States. For more than any other man, Babe Ruth transcended sports, moved far beyond the artificial limits of baselines and outfield fences and sports pages.” Honus Wagner Honus Wagner , the son of Dutch immigrants living in Western Pennsylvania, joined the Major Leagues in 1897.

Following a 21-year career, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Wagner retired with records for most games played, at-bats, hits, runs and total bases. “Seeing Wagner at bat, standing straight up waiting for the pitch, was to witness raw power,” writes Jan Finkel in the SABR Baseball Biography Project. “He held his heavy bat (well over 40 ounces) with his hands several inches apart, a grip that allowed him to slap an outside pitch to right at the last moment or slide his hands together and pull an inside pitch down the left field line.” Wagner is perhaps most famous for a rare trading card produced by the American Tobacco Company in 1910. The Honus Wagner T-206 card was pulled from circulation—legend say it’s because he did not want to influence children to buy tobacco products—and is now the most coveted and expensive baseball card. Additional Hall of Famers George Brett Christy Mathewson “In a time when baseball was known for hard-living, hard-drinking baseball players, there was Christy Mathewson to prove that there was another way for athletes to live, ” writes the Official Site of Christy Mathewson.

Mathewson was the king of the pitcher’s mound for the New York Giants for the first two decades of the 20th century. “ To Mathewson it is an eternal science ,” wrote The Literary Digest in 1913. “It is his specialty, and he finds enough of interest to keep him studying and working without a break. Naturally, this holds his interest. In each game he looks forward to some unexpected turn, or to trying out a batting weakness which he believes that he has discovered.” Walter Johnson Walter Johnson threw a powerful sidearm fastball that made him one of the greatest pitchers of all time . Ty Cobb recalls the first time he went to bat against Johnson: “The first time I faced him, I watched him take that easy windup—and then something went past me that made me flinch. I hardly saw the pitch, but I heard it.” Johnson played his entire career with the Washington Senators, leading the team through its only successful era . “For fans in Washington, he will be remembered as the man who delivered the city its first, and to this day only, World Series title,” writes MLB.com.

“In 1924, the Senators defeated the New York Giants in seven games, with the seventh game going to 12 innings. Johnson came in as a reliever to pitch the game's final four innings after pitching a complete game just two days earlier.” U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members - Jan 29, 1936 - HISTORY.com This Day In History: 01/29/1936 - Baseball Hall of Fame On this day in 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson. The Hall of Fame actually had its beginnings in 1935, when plans were made to build a museum devoted to baseball and its 100-year history. A private organization based in Cooperstown called the Clark Foundation thought that establishing the Baseball Hall of Fame in their city would help to reinvigorate the area's Depression-ravaged economy by attracting tourists. To help sell the idea, the foundation advanced the idea that U.S. Civil War hero Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown.

The story proved to be phony, but baseball officials, eager to capitalize on the marketing and publicity potential of a museum to honor the game's greats, gave their support to the project anyway. In preparation for the dedication of the Hall of Fame in 1939--thought by many to be the centennial of baseball--the Baseball Writers' Association of America chose the five greatest superstars of the game as the first class to be inducted: Ty Cobb was the most productive hitter in history; Babe Ruth was both an ace pitcher and the greatest home-run hitter to play the game; Honus Wagner was a versatile star shortstop and batting champion; Christy Matthewson had more wins than any pitcher in National League history; and Walter Johnson was considered one of the most powerful pitchers to ever have taken the mound. Today, with approximately 350,000 visitors per year, the Hall of Fame continues to be the hub of all things baseball. It has elected 278 individuals, in all, including 225 players, 17 managers, 8 umpires and 28 executives and pioneers. Lead Story U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members Share this: U.S.

Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members Author U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members URL First five players elected into Baseball Hall of Fame | World History Project 1936 First five players elected into Baseball Hall of Fame The first elections to select inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame were held in 1936. Members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) were given authority to select individuals from the 20th century; while a special Veterans Committee, made up of individuals with greater familiarity with the 19th century game, was polled to select deserving individuals from that era. The intent was for 15 honorees to be selected before the 1939 ceremonies - 10 from the 20th century and 5 from the 19th; additional players from both eras would be selected in later years.

Voters were given free rein to decide for themselves in which group a candidate belonged, with neither group knowing the outcome of the other election; some candidates had their vote split between the elections as a result - Cy Young, the winningest pitcher in history, finished 8th in the BBWAA vote and 4th in the Veterans vote. In addition, there was no prohibition on voting for active players, a number of whom received votes. Individuals who had been thrown out of baseball - such as Shoeless Joe Jackson and Hal Chase - were also not formally excluded, though few voters chose to include them on ballots. In the BBWAA election, voters were instructed to cast votes for 10 candidates, the same number of desired selections; in the Veterans' election, voters were also instructed to vote for 10, although the desire for only 5 initial selections led to revisions in the way the votes were counted. Any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots in either election would be honored with induction to the Hall upon its opening in the sport's supposed centennial year of 1939.

A total of 226 ballots were cast, with 2231 individual votes for 47 specific candidates; 170 votes were required for election. Initial ballots included 33 players listed as suggestions, although revised ballots were later sent with an additional 7 names; when questions arose about players who had been omitted, voters needed to be reminded that these names were simply intended as suggestions rather than the entire field of possibilities, and that write-in votes were fully allowed. Candidates who were listed on the ballot as suggestions are indicated here with a †.

The five candidates who received at least 75% of the vote and were elected are indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics: †Ty Cobb 222 98.2 Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees – From 1936 to Today | Readex Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees – From 1936 to Today Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees – From 1936 to Today Posted on Thu, 1/08/2015 - 5:35 by Jim Walsh 0 comments On January 6, 2015, the newest inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame were announced. They were three pitchers (the first time three pitchers were elected on one ballot) and a second baseman: Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez, and Craig Biggio. The three pitchers, Johnson, Smoltz, and Martinez, were on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.

The last time four players were voted in on the same ballot was in 1955, the year Joe DiMaggio was elected, two years after he was first eligible in 1953. It is difficult to understand how a player like DiMaggio was not elected to the Hall of Fame until his third year of eligibility! The inaugural class of Hall of Fame inductees in 1936 was also the largest at five: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. Again, it is amazing that not one of these greats was a unanimous choice. Cobb received 222 votes out of a possible 226. Ruth and Mathewson each received 215. News of their election was reported coast to coast in U.S. newspapers, as seen in these examples from the Augusta Chronicle and Seattle Daily Times: The original five 1936 inductees and 21 others elected over the next three years were formally inducted into the newly built Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, in 1939.

Detailed and often surprising information on these first 26 Hall of Famers—as well as the hundreds of other major leaguers, Negro leaguers, and managers elected since—can be easily found in America’s Historical Newspapers. For more information about the family of newspaper series and individually available titles available through America’s Historical Newspapers , or to request a trial for your institution, please contact readexmarketing[at]readex[dot]com . For additional examples of the use of America’s Historical Newspapers for baseball history research, please see the following articles published in The Readex Report: By Kate Buford, author of Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe Tags Honus Wagner | Society for American Baseball Research If you can help us improve this player's biography, contact us . Honus Wagner This article was written by Jan Finkel “There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer,” said the greatest player of his time, or most any other time – Honus Wagner. He may be the greatest player in National League history.

One of five sons and four daughters of the former Katrina Wolf and Peter Wagner, Honus (a diminutive of Johann or Johannes, the German equivalents of John) was born Johannes Peter Wagner in the coal country of western Pennsylvania on February 24, 1874. The Wagners lived in the tiny borough of Chartiers, about six miles southwest of downtown Pittsburgh. Albert, an older brother considered the best ballplayer in the family, began playing the game professionally, and in 1895 when his Steubenville, Ohio, (Inter-State League) team needed help, he suggested Honus. Honus’s first year was an odyssey covering five teams, three leagues, and 80 games. He hit wherever he played (between .365 and .386) and showed his versatility by playing every position except catcher. Edward Barrow, wearing several hats with the Wheeling, West Virginia, team (Iron and Oil League), liked what he saw and in 1896 took Honus with him to his next team, in Paterson, New Jersey (Atlantic League).

Honus rewarded Barrow’s faith by playing wherever he was needed –first, third, the outfield, or second – and hitting .313 with power and speed. He followed up by hitting .375 in 74 games for Paterson in 1897. Recognizing that Wagner should be playing at the highest level, Barrow contacted the Louisville Colonels, who had finished last in the National League in 1896 with a record of 38-93. They were doing better in 1897 when Barrow persuaded club president Barney Dreyfuss, club secretary Harry Pulliam, and outfielder-manager Fred Clarke to go to Paterson to see Wagner play. Dreyfuss and Clarke weren’t impressed with the awkward-looking man, not surprising, as Wagner was oddly built – 5-feet-1l, 200 pounds, with a barrel chest, massive shoulders, heavily muscled arms, huge hands, and incredibly bowed legs that deprived him of any grace and several inches of height. Pulliam, though, persuaded Dreyfuss and Clarke to take a chance on him.

Wagner debuted with Louisville on July 19, and hit.338 in 61 games. Pulliam was right. The awkward-looking Honus would become the best pure athlete in the game. Seeing Wagner at bat, standing straight up waiting for the pitch, was to witness raw power. He held his heavy bat (well over 40 ounces) with his hands several inches apart, a grip that allowed him to slap an outside pitch to right at the last moment or slide his hands together and pull an inside pitch down the left-field line. Now obsolete, the split-handed grip was relatively popular in the early part of the twentieth century. Wagner and Ty Cobb used it, winning 20 batting titles and accumulating about 7,600 hits between them. Honus was deceptive on the bases, too. He didn’t look fast, but he stole over 700 bases and legged out almost 900 doubles and triples. His speed got him the nickname “The Flying Dutchman.” In baseball, as in the worlds of myth and legend, titles and nicknames are earned.

(The direct albeit coincidental allusion to the myth and Richard Wagner’s opera of the same name didn’t hurt, either.) Wagner’s form as seen in early film was distinctive as he tore around the bases with his arms whirling like a berserk freestyle swimmer. Honus thought the arm motion gave him speed, and he got results. Wagner was a sight in the field as well. His huge hands made it difficult to tell whether he was wearing a glove. The glove that seemed too small for his hand was made even smaller by cutting a hole in the palm and pulling out much of the stuffing. Doing so, he thought, gave him better feel and hand mobility, reasonable given the pancake-shaped glove he used. Quick of foot and reflex, he covered the left side of the infield, knocking down balls (making errors on balls that other shortstops wouldn’t have reached) as necessary and throwing out runners with his powerful arm. He would irritate Clarke by taking his time making the throw on close plays at first. Wagner told Clarke he’d change when he quit throwing runners out. His one weakness in the field stemmed from his oversized feet, which sometimes got in the way.

At bat, on the bases, and in the field, Wagner wasn’t pretty, just effective. Wagner played in 151 games in 1898, handling first, second, and third, and hitting .299. He wouldn’t see the south side of .300 again until 1914. Louisville improved to 75-77 in 1899, helped by Honus’s hitting. That winter things would change drastically for all concerned. National League officials reduced league membership from 12 teams to eight. The Louisville club was dissolved. Dreyfuss bought stock in the Pittsburgh Pirates and through clever maneuvering became president of the club. Replacing unproductive Pirates with top players from Louisville, including Wagner, Dreyfuss pushed the Pirates to second behind the Brooklyn Superbas in 1900. Wagner thanked Dreyfuss for bringing him home, hitting and slugging career-bests .381 and .573. The decade spanning 1900 to 1909 belonged to Wagner.

He led in every significant category except triples (second behind Sam Crawford of the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers) and home runs, (tied for fifth). A summary of Wagner’s year-by-year hitting titles shows the following: batting average (7 times); on-base percentage (4); slugging (6); runs scored (2); hits (1); total bases (6); doubles (7); triples (3); RBIs (4); and stolen bases (5). Furthermore, he led the league in various categories up to 1912 and stayed among the leaders a few years after that. The rise of the American League in 1901 triggered bidding wars and player raids that decimated most National League teams. Wagner showed his loyalty to Dreyfuss, the Pirates, and Pittsburgh by refusing an offer of $20,000 up front from Chicago White Stockings pitcher-manager Clark Griffith. The tale, perhaps apocryphal, doesn’t hurt Wagner’s legacy. Pittsburgh survived the war between the leagues relatively unscathed, capturing the pennant from 1901 to 1903 and the World Series in 1909, and remaining strong throughout the decade.

The team’s won-lost record of 938-538 and winning percentage of .636 are the best of the period. Led by Wagner, the 1901 Pirates began a three-year stranglehold over the National League. Their 90-49 record was 7½ games better than the Philadelphia Phillies, with Wagner’s 126 RBIs the major-league best for the decade. The 1902 unit went 103-36, storming to a major-league record 27½-game margin over runner-up Brooklyn. Honus contributed by leading the league in slugging, doubles, steals, runs, and RBIs. The Pirates couldn’t decide where to play him, though. He had played every position except catcher at least adequately, often brilliantly. In two stints on the mound he gave up no earned runs (but several unearned ones), giving him the lowest ERA of anyone in the Hall of Fame – 0.00. His roaming around the diamond would change in 1903, as he finally found his permanent home at shortstop.

Wagner had primarily played shortstop in 1901, especially after the Pirates’ longtime shortstop Bones Ely jumped to the American League. Wid Conroy took over the position for the 1902 season, moving Wagner to right field, but he turned out to be a spy for the American League and was released. Clarke then put Tommy Leach at short and Wagner at third, instructing Leach to persuade Honus to swap positions. The con game worked, as Honus grudgingly took the position for good. Position notwithstanding, Wagner led the league at .355. The Pirates were weakened by the defection of their top pitcher, Jack Chesbro, to the New York Highlanders (now the Yankees) but still took the pennant, going 91-49. During the season Dreyfuss challenged the American League to a championship playoff at the end of the season. Henry Killilea, president of the league champion Boston Americans (now the Red Sox), accepted the challenge. The World Series was born.

Though plagued with injuries – Wagner’s right leg, pitcher Sam Leever’s sore arm, and pitcher Ed Doheny’s emotional collapse – the Pirates went into the best-of-nine Series as the favorites. Deacon Phillippe, the only healthy Pirate pitcher, threw complete games to take the first, third, and fourth games. Wagner went 5-for-14 and drove in three runs. Phillippe’s arm gave out, and Boston won four straight behind pitchers Cy Young and Bill Dineen and third baseman-manager Jimmy Collins to take the Series. The last four games were a nightmare for Wagner: 1-for-14, no RBIs, and the humiliation of making the final out of the Series on a called third strike. Worse, the acknowledged greatest player in the National League had led in only one category – errors, with six. Several Boston writers, noting Wagner’s miserable performance, implied that he might be “yellow,” a slap that would haunt him for years. From 1904 to 1907, the Pirates moved back and forth between second and fourth place, occasionally challenging the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs on their runs to glory. Wagner was still Wagner, always among the league leaders.

He won the first of four consecutive batting titles in 1906 and led the league in doubles and runs. Honus’s offseasons had been matters of routine. Tending to gain weight, he stayed in shape by fishing, hunting, and taking up the new sport of basketball, playing on several local teams. The horseless buggy allowed him to indulge in “automobiling,” as it was called. More enthusiastic than able, Honus had several mishaps while driving. He opened a garage to repair cars and sell the Regal; no salesman, he loved tinkering with engines. He raised chickens. He hated spring training and held out on principle or did anything he could to avoid or at least delay it. There were plenty of friends to lift a glass with. And with simple tastes and frugal (but not miserly) living, not to mention Dreyfuss’s wise investment help and some good real-estate properties, he was on solid financial ground. He retired. How genuine Wagner’s retirement was is debatable. He said he was tired, had suffered his share of injuries, and wanted to take at least a year off. Dreyfuss refused to panic at losing his star, in public anyway.

It’s possible, even likely, that Wagner was using his “retirement” to get a hefty raise. In any case, Dreyfuss doubled Honus’ salary to $10,000 (the figure he maintained until his last season), making him the highest-paid player in the game for several years. Wagner put together his greatest season in 1908. Both leagues hit just .239, but Honus didn’t notice. His .354 batting average led the league comfortably. Settling for second in homers and runs scored, he led in everything else. It added up to an offensive winning percentage of .878 in Lee Sinins’ Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia – the greatest single season in National League history until Barry Bonds’ astounding 2001 through 2004 seasons. And it wasn’t enough. In the closest National League pennant race ever, the Pirates could have forced a three-way tie with the Cubs and Giants by winning their finale against the Cubs. Instead, they lost, 5-2, Wagner’s two errors not helping. The ghosts of 1903 were alive and well.

A winter of frustration, brooding, and anger brought the Pirates back with a vengeance in 1909. They went 110-42 for the greatest season in club history, six games better than the Cubs. The Cubs got one measure of satisfaction, with Ed Reulbach beating Vic Willis, 3-2, on June 30 to spoil the opening of the new Pirates home, Forbes Field. Otherwise, it was the Pirates’ year, and Wagner carried them with league-leading figures in hitting, slugging, on-base percentage, doubles, RBIs, total bases, and extra-base hits. The stage was set for the best-of-seven World Series with the Detroit Tigers, coming off their third straight American League title and their nominee for baseball’s top player, Ty Cobb. The Series didn’t disappoint, as the Pirates won in seven games behind the pitching of Babe Adams and the hitting of ageless wonders Wagner, Clarke, and Leach. Wagner outplayed Cobb, hitting .333 to .231 for Cobb, stealing six bases to Cobb’s two, and getting six RBIs to five.

Honus’s six steals stood as the Series record until Lou Brock stole seven in both 1967 and 1968. The Series victory was particularly sweet for Wagner, who had vindicated himself. The Series provided one of the most noted (probably) non-events in the October madness. The Cobb-Wagner confrontation has been hashed over countless times. This much is certain: In the fifth inning of the first game Cobb reached first. The rest is folklore that has become a morality play. Cobb called Wagner “Krauthead,” warning him that he intended to steal second on the next pitch. Wagner told “Rebel” he’d be waiting. Then Wagner laid a tag on Cobb’s mouth that –depending on the version – knocked out or loosened teeth, or opened a multi-stitch cut on Cobb’s lip. There are several holes in the story. First, “kraut” and “krauthead” as slurs for people of German descent didn’t arise until the World Wars. Second, catcher George Gibson’s throw was low and late, forcing Wagner to try a swipe tag, so he couldn’t tag Cobb hard.

Third is Cobb’s categorical denial of the incident, noting that angering Wagner would have been foolhardy. (However, Cobb also suggested to Wagner that they go into vaudeville to re-enact the play, reasoning that they might as well make a few dollars from it.) A final objection to the tale is that a month after the Series Wagner accepted Cobb’s invitation to Georgia for some hunting. Honus didn’t exactly say it happened, didn’t exactly say it didn’t – winking and never discouraging those who “saw the whole thing.” On paper Wagner’s 1910 season looks decent. Although his .320 average was his lowest since 1898, he tied teammate Bobby Byrne for the league lead in hits with 178. The season was in fact a disaster. The Pirates fell to third behind the Cubs and Giants and were never in the pennant race, finishing a distant 17½ games behind league-leading Chicago. Wagner struggled, hitting well below .300 while fielding lackadaisically, and only a late-season surge got him to acceptable territory.

The Pirates attributed his subpar performance to an injury, then a lingering cold, or maybe just a slump, but the real cause was an open secret – his out-of-control drinking. Honus had more than his share of run-ins with umpires, receiving several ejections and suspensions, and some ugly confrontations with teammates. The situation was serious enough for Clarke to have a long talk with Wagner after the season. The only good thing to come out of 1910 was the now-famous T-206 card, one of which commanded over $1 million at auction in 2000. Pirates secretary John Gruber, making $10 on the deal, sold the American Tobacco Company a picture of Wagner to reproduce in card form to be inserted in Piedmont cigarettes. Wagner, who smoked cigars and chewed but didn’t like cigarettes, stopped the deal, sending Gruber a check for $10. Wagner didn’t want kids buying cigarettes and didn’t think they should have to pay for his picture. The few cards that got out before the print run could be stopped were snapped up and held, making the Wagner T-206 card the most prized sports card on record.

Honus had his last big seasons in 1911 and 1912, winning his final batting title in 1911 and leading the league in RBIs the next year. He hit exactly .300 in 1913, the last time he would reach that level. Wagner and the Pirates declined together. The team fell to seventh in 1914 as Wagner hit .252. On June 9 he got his 3,000th hit, doubling against Philadelphia’s Erskine Mayer to become the first player to achieve that milestone in the twentieth century. The team improved to fifth in 1915 with Honus having something of a last hurrah. Playing all 156 games, he had enough left in his battery to leg out 32 doubles and 17 triples and drive in 78 runs. The season had one highlight, as he hit a grand slam off Brooklyn’s Jeff Pfeffer on July 29. Forty-one years old at the time, he was thought to be the oldest player to hit a grand slam. 1 Clarke retired after the 1915 season.

Dreyfuss brought in Jimmy Callahan, but the Pirates fell to sixth. Wagner’s modest .287 was good enough for eighth in the league. Honus ended 1916 on a bright note, though, on December 31 marrying Bessie Baine Smith, whom he’d been seeing for several years. Wagner was dubious about playing another year. Bessie’s cooking was having its effect on his waistline, and he wasn’t working out or hunting much. He started the season fairly well, but he and the Pirates were finished, the team dropping to the cellar while he hit .265 in just 74 games. Callahan was fired, and Honus, who had served as acting manager when Clarke was unavailable, agreed to take over, but after winning his first game and losing the next four, he told Dreyfuss the job wasn’t for him. He played his last game on September 17, three innings at second base. Wagner’s final résumé included major-league records (at the time) for games, at-bats, extra-base hits, and total bases.

In addition, he held National League records for doubles, triples, and batting titles (8, later tied by Tony Gwynn). He’s second behind Cap Anson in hits (3,435 to 3,420), RBIs (2,075 to 1,733), and runs scored (1,999 to 1,739). His 733 stolen bases rank third behind Billy Hamilton’s 914 and Arlie Latham’s 742. 2 The Wagners awaited the birth of their first child. Tragically, Elva Katrina was stillborn on January 9, 1918. Honus threw himself into war work, making speeches urging Americans to buy Liberty Bonds and becoming an entertaining speaker. Betty Baine Wagner was born on December 5, 1919, followed by Virginia (Ginny) Mae on May 3, 1922.

A doting father, Honus took the girls everywhere, taught them to play ball, and called them “my boys.” Betty married Harry Blair in 1948 and two years later presented Bessie and Honus with Leslie Ann, their only grandchild and descendant. Answering to “Buck Jay” from an adoring Leslie, Honus read to his little sweetheart and slipped her the occasional Hershey bar. Wagner’s life after he finished playing was a mix of highs and lows. He had political jobs: state fish commissioner and sergeant-at-arms of the Pennsylvania legislature. He bought properties around Carnegie, building on them and making a decent rental income. He coached the Carnegie High School football team and the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) basketball and baseball teams. Most prominent of his ventures was the sporting-goods store bearing his name. The business went through several weak phases, as Wagner lacked business sense and had some less than ideal partners. Honus and Pie Traynor, an honest man as well as a great third baseman, tried to make a go of it, but the Depression finished it off. The Wagners were hit fairly hard by the Depression.

William Benswanger, taking over the Pirates’ leadership after the death of his father-in-law, Barney Dreyfuss, heard of Wagner’s situation in 1933 and gave him a coaching job. Honus’s first task was to make a big-league shortstop out of the hard-hitting Arky Vaughan, who went on to a Hall of Fame career. He primarily coached and encouraged the rookies, becoming a substitute father to them, and chatted with the fans. He spun yarns, like the time he scooped up a grounder in his steam-shovel hands along with grass, pebbles, and a rabbit that had run onto the field and heaved the whole mess to first, nailing a fast runner – by a “hare.” Once shy, he became a fine after-dinner speaker and barroom raconteur. Age and injuries catching up with him, he retired in 1951. Beyond Bessie and the “boys,” the grandest moment of Honus’s life was his election in 1936 –with Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson – as one of the five charter members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He starred at the induction ceremonies on June 12, 1939, reminiscing with the giants of a bygone era. Honus lived out the remainder of his years at home in Carnegie, making his customary journeys to the Elks Club and the various watering holes that Pittsburgh offered. He made his last public appearance on April 30, 1955, at the unveiling of the Frank Vittor statue of him that would stand in Schenley Park outside Forbes Field. Too weak to leave the car, he waved to the crowd and left before the ceremonies ended. The 10-foot-high bronze statue atop a granite base shows Wagner following through on his swing and watching the flight of the ball. The monument later graced the entrance to Three Rivers Stadium and now greets visitors to PNC Park, the Pirates’ current home. Beset by injuries, illness, and age, Honus Wagner died in his Carnegie home at 12:56 A.M. on December 6, 1955, less than an hour after Betty’s birthday. He was buried on December 9 in Jefferson Memorial Cemetery in Pleasant Hills, south of Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner was no angel or saint.

Some opponents thought him a fine fellow off the diamond but overly rough on it. Most umpires thought he “kicked” too much. He affected to dislike formal affairs, but he really hated the next morning. Yet he also embodied the American dream as the son of immigrants who rose from humble roots to greatness. Frailties aside, he was one of baseball’s first heroes, a basically gentle, hard-working man, a loyal friend and teammate who treated young players kindly, dealt with adversity, inspired millions, and was devoted to Bessie, the “boys,” and Leslie. Bill James in The Historical Baseball Abstract put it best: “[T]here is no one who has ever played this game that I would be more anxious to have on a baseball team.” Barry M. Bloom: Why Cy Young was not a part of inaugural 1936 HOF class | MLB.com First Hall class had notable omission Despite 511 career wins, Young had to wait a year to be selected Ripken reads Gehrig's plaque 0:32 Lou Gehrig is honored at the 2013 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and has his plaque text read by Cal Ripken Jr. By Barry M.

Bloom / MLB.com | @boomskie | + 0 COMMENTS COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Fans have often wondered why Cy Young, the pitcher with the most wins in history, wasn't inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with the inaugural Class of 1936. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson were the first inductees, and they are front and center in the plaque gallery of the red-brick museum on Main Street. On Thursday, many in the baseball world will gather for the 75th birthday of its opening and the day the first four Classes of 1936-39 were inducted. There's a good reason why Johnson, who ranks second on the all-time list with 417 wins, got in, and Young at 511 wins, didn't. "The 1936 vote was something of a fiasco," said Major League Baseball's official historian John Thorn.

"The instructions weren't clear and the criteria for interpreting the vote weren't clear." A group of pre-1900 players were voted upon by a Veterans Committee, and the post-1900 players were inducted by 226 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the organization that maintains the honor today. Denton True "Cyclone" Young's career spanned 1890-1911, and aside from the staggering win total, he also holds the records for losses, starts, complete games and innings pitched, among others. Without any direction from Hall officials, the committees split the vote. The 78 veterans, mostly made up of former players gave Young 41 percent, and the BBWAA, 49 percent. As it remains today, a candidate had to total 75 percent on one ballot or the other to be inducted. Under the rules, the votes of both committees weren't combined and Young had to wait until 1937 when he was elected by the BBWAA with 76.1 percent of the vote along with only two other players, Nap Lajoie and Tris Speaker.

That same year, the Veterans Committee added managers Connie Mack and John McGraw and executives Morgan Bulkeley, Byron Johnson and pioneer George Wright. Mack, who managed the Philadelphia A's until 1950, would never have been elected today until he retired. "I guess they weren't so fussy about the rules back then," Thorn said. By the time the Hall opened on Jan. 12, 1939, 26 players, managers and executives had been elected by the dueling committees, and they were all inducted in one massive class. At the time, the electees arrived by train and the inductions were conducted on the steps to the entrance of the museum. These days, the ceremony is staged about a mile away behind the Clark Sports Center, where thousands of fans congregate on a meadow for the occasion. Admission has always been free. This year, on July 27, in excess of 50,000 are expected for the induction of pitchers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, slugger Frank Thomas and managers Joe Torre, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox.

Like Mack, La Russa, who retired after 33 years of managing when his Cardinals defeated the Rangers in the 2011 World Series, is active again, having just taken the newly created job of chief baseball officer for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Torre is Major League Baseball's executive vice president of baseball operations. "La Russa is back in business," Thorn said. But he's not managing, and that's the accepted practice. The Hall, founded by local landowner and magnate Stephen C. Clark, went into business as soon as the Hall of Fame charter was awarded. It would be three years before the actual edifice would be complete, but there was no reason to wait, and the voting to honor MLB greats began in earnest in 1936. Clark's granddaughter, Jane Forbes Clark, is still chair of the Hall's board. Of the 26 players, managers and executives elected, 13 of those players were picked by the BBWAA. Aside from the eight greats in the first two classes, the writers anointed Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1938 and Eddie Collins, George Sisler and Willie Keeler in '39.

Lou Gehrig was also added by special election in '39 after he had to retire because of a debilitating illness earlier that year. Gehrig was too sick to attend the mass 1939 induction and was officially inducted last summer when Cal Ripken Jr. read the inscription off his plaque. The symmetry was neat and sentimentally moving, considering that the Iron Man had broken the Iron Horse's record consecutive game playing streak of 2,131 games. Ripken and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Morgan will be in attendance Thursday for the birthday commemoration. "[The fact] that the voting began long before the doors of the actual museum opened was well-intended," Thorn said. "It was like the Hollywood ramp up theory of publicity. You build up enthusiasm by peppering the press with news rather than saving everything for one shot." Before the museum opened, there was one matter to attend to: how to make amends with the revered Young. In trying to do so, Hall officials interviewed and had correspondence with Young, asking him to be a docent or tour guide for the Hall. "Can you imagine that he would be there every day, greeting everybody who came to the Hall?" Thorn said.

Alas, like the 1936 vote for Young, it didn't happen. By the time the museum opened, he was already 72 years old. Barry M. Bloom is national reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, Boomskie on Baseball . Follow @boomskie on Twitter. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. Share This

Question: 1936 saw Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson the first inductees into what?
Answer: Baseball Hall of Fame